The UnbaptizedPope and The Vicar of Bullhampton: A response to Anthony Trollope's Novel in Nikolay Leskov's Story

The aim of the article is to prove that N.S. Leskov employed A. Trollope's experience, in particular, the novel The Vicar of Bullhampton, when he created the story The Unbaptized Pope (1877). This hypothesis is verified by the typological comparison of the two main characters of the works. The analysis of The Unbaptized Pope shows that Leskov presents his ideal of a clergyman: the Reverend Savva is mild-tempered, kind, indifferent to money. But the main thing is that he interprets traditional church ordinances in a completely non-Orthodox way. For example, he advises not to go to Kiev for the atonement of sins, but to help the family, the sick and the poor: the earthly, the specifically human constantly prevail over the abstract-canonical. The analysis of the novel The Vicar of Bullhampton reveals that Trollope sets a similar aim. He needs an absolutely positive character, able to challenge not only those around him, but also future readers of the novel, because its main subject is the fate of a fallen woman. At the same time, Trollope represents Francis Fenwick as objectively as possible. With all his tolerance and breadth of views, the vicar of Bulhampton is an ordinary person, with his weaknesses and errors. But it is this clergyman who is capable of an extraordinary deed: contrary to public opinion, Fenwick returns Carry Brattle to the family and to an honest life. The author concludes that Trollope's aim-to find the heroic in the simple, to show ordinary people who can rise in their actions-was extremely close to Leskov with his aspiration to discover the type of the righteous man on the national ground. However, it is still not the character of a "good pope" that is in the foreground in the story: it is almost invisible against the background of the action-packed story of the failed baptism. The comparative analysis reveals the specific meaning of the two subtitles of the story: the "incredible event" and the "legendary case" are not the consecration of an unbaptized person, but the very appearance of such an ideal priest. The second part of the article focuses on the influence of the sensation novel on Leskov's and Trollope's works. Trollope's attitude towards this genre was complex: sensationalism was alien to his writer's principles; therefore, he borrows only outward signs from the popular genre. Leskov, on the contrary, consciously follows the canon: the abundance of terrible prophecies, the motive of mystery. The writer also actively uses the method of preserving a seeming intrigue, known from M.E. Braddon's novel Lady Audley's Secret (1862). The methods of the sensation novel help Leskov to increase the tension of the narrative and possibly veil the main author's goal, the creation of a "myth" about the righteous pope, by an exciting and dramatic plot with elements of a fatal secret, murder and punishment for sins. Concluding the research, the author confidently states that Trollope is among English authors whose works influenced Leskov's artistic principles.

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